with michele obama, you know the first african-american first lady in the white house. but the question is, where did it begin? it is a little unorthodox. i didn't know really when i started doing and how well it would work. i thought that i would learn as to 700 and i also thought that because there was so much silence over the generations the peeling back of the layers in hearing what little bits and pieces people knew and what they did not know. but that would give you a sense of the reverberations that slavery had over time. but you would be kind of drawn to this. >> i think silence is one of the most consistent themes in the book. the pain of this task. discussing the way in which he told the story perhaps as your own way of using the reader into that moment, this moment -- this terrible moment. this terrible moment that is unfolding, this legacy that begins with a six-year-old slave girl. and i was thinking about the context and the timing of this book. of course there is the first lady. and that speaks volumes to a wide group. i also wondered if thomas jefferson